I remember being younger and my father would ask me, while horsing around, wrestling or playing, "Head or gut?". This was his way of saying I was going to get hit (jokingly of course) and he was giving me the choice of a shot in the head or the gut. Neither was ideal but hey, at least I had a choice.

This is how I think many Americans must feel about the upcoming election. Although it is an American issue and many may think it might not concern us Canadians, we are talking about a superpower of the globe that we happen to share a land mass with. Whether we like it or not, we are often lumped into the same category globally, and in a lot of cases our social media feeds and even our Canadian news seems to be littered with the goings on south of the border.

I'm not going to get into platforms, political strategies or what each POTUS candidate has to offer, but rather question how it came to be that the only choice the American people have is between two questionable individuals that are the only option for the leadership of their country.

On one side you have Donald Trump, being accused of racism, bigotry and misogynistic comments and actions. On the other is Hillary Clinton, often blamed for carelessly handling sensitive classified information and many American citizens feeling she belongs in prison for some of her actions. Not to mention videos on socialsmedia of her extreme "flip-flopping" on major issues over the years.

Now any one of us under this kind of intense scrutiny and high powered microscope are bound to have some undesirable past issues arise, where we would have to explain ourselves out of some deep dark holes. When we look at someone who is capable of actually running the country, are these kinds of things acceptable? Would anyone running for POTUS have to do some smooth talking to explain some damaging past choices and mistakes? Most likely, however, I can't help but ask myself, where are the upstanding, honourable individuals that we know must exist in the United States? Surely, there must be someone who is pure of heart and without scandal and questionable acts or comments peppering their past. Why is it that the two final POTUS candidates are seemingly having to make grande excuses for their past? These are not small issues either. Some of these discrepancies are very serious and show some possibly damaging personality traits. I personally might have trouble letting either one of these candidates watch my kids, let alone run a major super power that drastically effects the entire world on many levels. Where are the Mother Theresas, the Martin Luther Kings, The John F. Kennedys and other similar individuals?

A common biblical quote says "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone…". There have been many stones cast, and many accusing fingers pointed. Rightfully so?

Is it human nature that we must sift through the short comings of those in the public eye? Is it human nature that we simply enjoy looking for that next juicy bit of information for the stimulating feeling we get by stirring the pot, or is it to start a healthy debate and come to the best decision together as a group? I am honestly not sure, perhaps it's a mixture of these things.

I don't ever recall seeing such a controversial and heated political situation in my life in the Western World. People are assaulting each other, making terrible racist remarks and at each others throats more than I can ever remember. There is a very bold and clear line drawn in the sand like never before and I am very curious to see how this whole situation will play out.

Perhaps the flow of the political stream is running on par with the changes we have seen in pop culture over the last few decades. Some things are more acceptable than they once were and many things are not. It is frowned upon to discipline your child or say Merry Christmas. The introduction of reality T.V shows and social media into our lives has changed who people idolize and the genre of knowledge people retain or consider important. Younger generations know more about Kim Kardashians life than they do about Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein or Marie Curie. We have seen actors as POTUS, the Terminator and a Pro Wrestler were both Governors of American states, "twerking" has become an acceptable thing to just do, people can appear half naked on television and grocery store news stands, music has descended into it's darkest simplest form, it's acceptable for people to stare at their phones for most of the day, the appropriate political correctness is getting ridiculous to keep track of, we dress our children in bubble wrap to go play in the yard, everyone whines about everything….etc, etc, etc.

I mention these issues because they all seem like things that would not have been accepted in past years, just as I see the current Presidential gong show. The list of absurd realties we see everyday could probably fill this newspaper. Since the recent race for POTUS has begun, I feel more and more that a common question we are going to have to answer more and more is, "Head or Gut"?